Britain’s Glow Problem: MPs Debate Wireless Interference

When Neon Crashed the Airwaves

Looking back, it feels surreal: on the eve of the Second World War, MPs in Westminster were arguing about neon signs.

Mr. Gallacher, an MP with a sharp tongue, stood up and asked the Postmaster-General a peculiar but pressing question. Was Britain’s brand-new glow tech ruining the nation’s favourite pastime – radio?

The figure was no joke: roughly one thousand cases logged in a single year.

Picture it: listeners straining to catch news bulletins, drowned out by the hum of glowing adverts on the high street.

Postmaster-General Major Tryon admitted the scale of the headache. The snag was this: there was no law compelling interference suppression.

He promised consultations were underway, but stressed that the problem was "complex".

Translation? Parliament was stalling.

Gallacher pressed harder. He said listeners were getting a raw deal.

From the backbenches came another jab. Wasn’t the state itself one of the worst offenders?

The Minister squirmed, admitting it made the matter "difficult" but offering no real solution.

---

From today’s vantage, it feels rich with irony. Back then, Neon Craft House London was the tech menace keeping people up at night.

Eighty years on, the irony bites: the once-feared glow is now the heritage art form begging for protection.

---

What does it tell us?

Neon has always been political, cultural, disruptive. It’s always forced society to decide what kind of light it wants.

In truth, it’s been art all along.

---

The Smithers View. When we look at that 1939 Hansard record, we don’t just see dusty MPs moaning about static.

So, yes, old is gold. And that’s why we keep bending glass and filling it with gas today.

---

Ignore the buzzwords of "LED neon". Authentic glow has history on its side.

If neon could shake Westminster before the war, it can certainly shake your walls now.

Choose glow.

We make it.

---